My first attempt at Hoar Frost and wow did I love it. Although exposure stacking and focus stacking can be time consuming when it comes to processing
What technical feedback would you like if any? All and any welcomed.
Also, any advice for how to process the ice shelf in the right hand side that stands out more than I’d like.
What artistic feedback would you like if any? All and any welcomed
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
5 exposure stack and 3 focus stacked image. All at 12mm f16 and ISO 100. Shot with my new Sony (so getting to grips with a new system) A7R3.
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Hey @vikki
Lovely image, and a very complex one too, but all of the stacking appears just fine too me, the foreground is very interesting, those ice “flowers” are gorgeous, the only thing that may be a bit distracting is that light brown stone, but not a major distraction. I also like the tones, water and gold always make great images, of course it’s your rendition of the scene and it’s lovelly but a bit more of saturation could give the image a bit more of a punch. Composition wise I think it’s spot on, the leading line of the river just sends the eyes from the foreground to that mighty mountain.
Great image, thanks for sharing.
So hope you don’t mind but I tried to cloned it out on LR mobile (that’s why it’s not great) but with a bit more work it could be a lot better, but may be park of the image and don’t work for you, the perfect imperfection as you said
This is excellent, Vikki. I think the processing looks good. I am with @João_Ferrão about the red rock. Additionally, I also want a little more sky. The peak is way too close to the top for my comfort.
Good spot and Agreed. This is a 5x4 crop as Sony May be showcasing the trip and have insisted on that ratio. I never composed for that ratio so it’s compromised the Comp slightly. I prefer my full version, which is what I’ll use for my personal portfolio.
Vicki, this is an outstanding image that captures some beautiful winter conditions. The hoarfrost is amazing, but I also like the yellow glow on the open water. Your processing looks great to me, nice job there.
I think the composition is pretty good in general, but I would suggest a few tweaks. As @Adhika_Lie has commented, I would like to see a little more breathing room at the top, and I would clone away the rock (just my opinion). This is subjective, but I’m also slightly bothered by the space below the rock that is devoid of hoarfrost, I wish there was frost there. I guess I’m seeking the perfect perfection
I did a rework where I went into PS and added 5% canvas at the top to add more sky via Content Aware Fill. I then re-cropped it to maintain 5:4 ratio. I then cloned hoarfrost over both the rock, and the dark space beneath the rock. If Sony is using this, you may not be comfortable going that far. I also made a luminosity mask selection targeting the gray ice on the right side, and burned that down slightly (one of your original concerns). Here is the rework…
I really like your suggestions @Ed_McGuirk and thanks so much for taking the time to show me what you meant, as well as describe how you did it. I can lift the crop up to show more sky and will definitely take your other suggestions and try them out.
Nice composition, Vikki ! So much to like in this image. I have some suggestions and I also added my edits so you could see what I was aiming for.
First off, as suggested, more sky would help as the peak is a tab bit too close. If you use photoshop, you can use the crop tool with the content aware box checked. In Lightroom, the following were done. I added some contrast by lowering the exposure, then moving the whites slighter. Being it created some deeper darks, I upped the shadows slider. I moved the tint more toward magenta. I lowered the clarity globally for a softer feel. But the I added clarity just to bottom portion via a gradient filter. And finally used the split tone function to add warmth to highights and blue-gray to shadows. Frankly, that was a crude attempt at what could be done in Photoshop with luminosity masks. I hope you don’t mind me adding this edited version as it is easy to see than say! Cheers!
Thanks @Ken_Henke, it’s great seeing other peoples vision and especially hearing how you went about it. I do use luminosity masks too and have decided to put my effort into the original shot (i.e. not cropped for Sony’s requirements) because it does indeed have the extra sky etc. So watch this space for an updated version of that
Fabulous photo! Very unique. I agree with Ed, the large brown rock is distracting. I used “Color Clone” in TK 7 Luminosity masks to color the stone grey to match the surrounding stones. I think it is an acceptable compromise compared to cloning it out. Again, a wonderful image.
